Who I am as a Writer

After taking this class for a semester, I have grown significantly as a writer.


Resources
I've learned to use my resources more efficiently. For example, I now know how to use the online library; this is important because I have used it in several other classes and assignments as well. In addition, using Zotero has helped me with my citing. I no longer have to struggle when trying to cite my sources because this application does it for me. Reaching out to people such as writing consultants and fellows have helped me with developing my writing skills, so I will continue to reach out to them as well.


Confidence
I have gained greater confidence when writing. In the past, I've struggled with sharing my writing. I always tried to hide my writing from other people because of the fear of being judged. However, taking a class dedicated to just writing has encouraged to reach out to people, which has helped me face my fear. I now am more confident and focus on self-improvement rather than my fears when I try to reach out to people.


Versatility
The different writing assignments in this class have allowed for me to develop different aspects of writing. Going into the class, I only had one mindset of writing and had a specific writing structure in my mind. I especially struggled with the Literature Review because I wasn't used to the type of writing where I had to focus my writing around a question. However, I now feel like I am able to write different types of writings due to this experience.

Although I have learned a great amount through this class, I am still learning and hope to continue to see improvement in my writing skills in the future.

Projects

The different writing assignments allowed for me to develop multiple aspects of my writing skills. I was able to expand upon my creative, analytical, research, and organizational skills.

Informal Writing
The eleven informal writing assignments allowed for me to expand on my creativity skills. When writing, I feel like I am almost always not as expressive as I want to be because I am always concerned about being grammatically and structurally correct. However, these informal assignments have allowed me to focus on other aspects of writing. I was able to write freely without worrying about being graded and judged. This has allowed for me to be more creative, expressive, and more confident.

Podcast
The podcast assignment was interesting because it wasn't a typical writing assignment. Although it started as a writing assignment, it ended as a speaking project. It allowed for me to learn more about my audience because I had to figure out how to keep my audience engaged in my podcast. In addition, it allowed for me to develop my analytical skills through analyzing an Amendment. In history class, when I learned about the Amendments, I didn't think too deep or much of it. I just accepted them for what they are. It was interesting to compare this to every day life and my personal experiences as well.

Literature Review & Research Paper
These two papers went hand and hand because they both helped me develop my research skills. I used to struggle with finding credible and relevant sources. However, these two projects introduced me to the online library and database, which I continuously use for my other classes. In addition, these projects have helped me develop a different viewpoint when writing a paper. I now strive to think of an overall question, which helps me with organizing my paper more efficiently. Furthermore, these projects have encouraged me to reach out to writing fellows and consultants who have helped me with being more expressive in my writing.

Has the way you approached problems or questions shifted at all throughout the semester?

The way I approached problems or questions definitely shifted throughout the semester. In the beginning of the semester, I was scared to reach out for help because I thought very negatively about my writing skills. Because I was ashamed of my writing abilities, I didn't want anyone to read it. As a result, whenever I had a problem or question, I tend to keep to myself or ask my close friends. Even then, I didn't want to show my close friends because they are much better writers than I am. 

However, as the semester progressed, I realized the importance of reaching out to other people when in need because there are many resources available for me. As a result, I began reaching out to the writing consultants and writing fellows. This helped me significantly because I was able to rely on another person when I was stuck in my writing. An example would be the literature review when I was stuck on what question I wanted to write about for my research paper. Reaching out to a writing consultant really helped me because I was able to phrase the question in the way that I wanted to, which I couldn't do alone. Talking through my paper with another person helped me significantly. In addition, when I needed help shortening my paper, talking to a writing fellow helped me determine the important parts of my paper. This shift in approaching my problems and questions is much better than my old approach because I don't have to be frustrated alone anymore. I am glad that I reached out to other people because I never did in high school, which might be why I didn't see much improvement in my writing since I never had another opinion or guide. 

New Writing Strategies

My writing strategy hasn't changed significantly throughout the semester. However, I did notice a shift from the first podcast. When I was writing the podcast, the thing that kept on running through my mind was to write an analysis. This is because when I write, I tend to summarize more than I analyze. I feel like because of this, I wasn't able to fully engage in the writing because I was more focused on the structure part of a paper rather than expressing my thoughts and opinions. I think I was able to make this shift in the literature review because I was able to choose any topic that I wanted to. I was interested in plastic surgery in Korea because it is part of my culture, so I was able to have more fun when writing the paper. I think my approach changed because I was thinking more about the audience and my own opinions rather than thinking about the structure of a "good" essay. In addition, I think I used to go in blindly into an essay without having a question in mind. For example, if I were to write about plastic surgery, I would just think about plastic surgery instead of questions that I could ask. Working on the literature review really helped me change my approach because I now have  a question in mind and think about what I am really curious about. This is a much better writing strategy because I don't have to think as hard about how to fill the page limit since I have more to think and write about.

This was me after I found a better writing strategy

Strengths and Weaknesses

Aside from goals, it is important to understand my strengths and weaknesses as a writer. Since I don't think too positively about my writing skills, it is difficult for me to determine my strengths and weaknesses. It seems as if I only have weaknesses. However, it is important to know what my strengths and weaknesses are so that I know what skills I need to improve on and what I can use to my advantage in my writing. As a result, I decided to create a list of both that I can look back at when feeling lost in my writing. 

Strengths

1) I am good at organizing a schedule/outline. Normally I start with finding all my sources and then picking out all of my quotes before I really decide what I want to write about. This helps me with writing my essays because I am able to more easily pick the path I want to go on. It also allows for me to have a way to start my essay when I am completely clueless about what I want to write about.  

2) I am really good at writing under a time crunch. I know this really isn't a strength because it means that I procrastinate, but when I feel a sense of urgency, I seem to get some kind of inspiration and able to write more. 

3) I write a lot. This can also be seen like a weakness because too much writing normally means that there's most likely a lot of repetition. However, I like that I write a lot because I'm able to shorten my writing after I write everything; I think it is easier to cut than to add.  

Weaknesses

1) I am bad at finding sources. I think this is what takes the longest time for me. I always struggle to find my sources regardless of what my topic is. I think this is a weakness for me because whenever I can't find my sources, I settle with sources that aren't very great for my writing or I become discouraged to write and simply stop writing my draft. 

2) I think that my vocabulary is not very great. A lot of the times, I use the same words. I should try to use a thesaurus to find different words to enhance my vocabulary and make my writing more engaging. 

3) My sentence structure is too similar. When I don't pay attention, I tend to use the same sentence structure. I struggled with this throughout my years in writing. I think I really need to pay attention to this because I've heard that using the same sentence structure makes a writing boring.  

4) My organization in my papers isn't necessarily the best. When I organize it one way in my head or on paper, it turns out different in my actual writing. It's almost as if I'm not able to express myself the way I want to. This is a huge struggle for me because I become extremely frustrated when I'm not able to express my fully. I tend to start over everything, which sometimes is a huge waste of time, or I have to settle for a final draft that I'm not completely satisfied with. 

I have even more strengths and weaknesses, but these are the top 3-4 that I want to focus on. I think it's better to start narrow so that I have a few that I want to highlight and work on before branching out to the other points. 

Goals

It’s a few days into the semester, and I know that I have to make goals for myself so that I can become a better writer from before college. This is good because I never made writing goals before. I was just constantly frustrated and never thought about making goals that I could reach. I think this is a good way for me to see the positive aspects in writing as I strive to reach my goals. 

Here are my goals for the semester: 

1) Try to brainstorm more without worrying about “bad writing”. I like this goal because in high school I would always worry about writing a good first draft because I don’t want to look like a bad writer in front of my peers. However, writing a “shitty first draft” will allow for me to explore more and write nonsense, which I can go back and fix more in the future. This will allow for me to be less stressed and overall have a better experience with writing. 

2) Put the online library to better use. In high school, I used EBSCO host for many papers, but I also looked to google for most of my sources. I should try to use the online library because there are many scholarly sources that are great for my essays. Exploring this library will allow for me to be better at finding sources, and not have to dedicate as much time trying to figure out how to find my sources and what sources I need. 

3) Reach out to other people to help me with my essay. When I am stuck, I tend to just give up or be frustrated alone. I should reach out to writing fellows and writing consultants when I am stuck. It is always good to have multiple opinions on my writing. I shouldn’t be shy because I think my writing is bad because these resources are here for me when I’m in need. 

4) Don’t compare myself to other people. Everyone’s writing style is different, so I shouldn’t try to compare myself to other people. When I compare myself, I tend to feel worse about my writing and be even more discouraged to write. I should only compare myself to my previous writings and focus on self-improvement. 

5) Don’t be scared to explore in writing and be more expressive. I feel like a lot of the times, I’m too scared to write about certain topics because I am scared that I won’t be able to find enough sources or enough to write about. I should explore and really find things I’m interested in. 

These are some of my goals that I want to start my semester with. Of course as the semester goes on, I’ll have new goals that I want to reach. I hope that I will be able to keep a positive attitude and learn to appreciate writing more. 

Day 1

Writing has never been my strong suit. I think a big reason to my lack of confidence in writing is because of the other languages that I have learned. Despite being born in the US, my first language was Korean because my grandparents helped raise me and they don't speak English too well. It wasn't until preschool when I started learning English. In kindergarten, I began learning Chinese because the immersion program was offered in my elementary school. In this program, I learned English for half the day and Chinese for the other half of the day. As a result, the time that I got to learn English was minimal. People say that it is easiest to learn another language when you are younger, but I think I definitely struggled because I wasn't even confident in English when I started learning Chinese.

This is me trying to juggle Korean, English, and Chinese

This lack of confidence carried throughout elementary school. Thankfully, I did not have many writing opportunities in my English class that I didn't have to worry about this. However, as soon as I entered middle school, my classes became significantly harder. I began needing tutors and studying more hours to be able to understand the material and do well in class. Honestly, this didn't frustrate me too much because I saw it coming. I just had to read the textbook and do practice problems. Writing on the other hand, was another story. All of my friends were extremely smart and good writers. I would read their essays and be amazed by their vocabulary choice and writing structure. I always hated proofreading because I would compare my essays with theirs.

This is me comparing my essay with my friends

Despite feeling embarrassed when my friends read my essay, I would still beg them to help me because I didn't know how to sound more sophisticated when I write. This feeling continued throughout high school as well. I'm not saying that all of my essays were terrible; there were definitely times when I felt that they were decent. However, it still was my hardest class and possibly the least favorite because I struggled so much. When my friends would spend an hour on an assignment, I would spend almost an entire day. I think it's because I didn't know how to express myself truly in my writing. I would just lock myself in my room and be frustrated for hours until I found my writing to be somewhat okay.

This is me closing my laptop because I am frustrated and don't know what to write

This is probably why I was so happy when I first came to college because I knew I only had to take writing for one semester. I felt so much relief when I realized that I didn't have to take writing my first semester. It felt like I was finally getting a break that I really wanted. 

This is me dancing my way through first semester

However, here I am in second semester trying to find myself through writing all over again. I dread the hours I have to spend trying to find good sources, write good analysis, think of a good thesis, and everything else that comes with good writing. As I look at the syllabus in class with everyone, I am extremely nervous because of the amount of writing I'd have to do. At least in high school, I had other projects and assignments, but in a writing class, there's only writing assignments. 

This is me sweating buckets thinking about the informal writing and the 4 formal assignments

This is only the first day of the semester, however. I hope that my thoughts on writing and this class changes. After all, I chose human happiness, I should feel some sort of positive energy right?

Fingers crossed for a good semester!!!

My quote of the day. I hope I can find the light in my frustration with writing and get a positive experience out of this class.